The present invention relates to cardiac defibrillation/cardioversion, and more particularly to an implantable defibrillation/cardioversion system including a pulse generator which generates a lower energy biphasic defibrillation/cardioversion waveform.
When used hereinafter, the term "defibrillation" is meant to include high energy defibrillation and lower energy cardioversion.
Biphasic internal defibrillation has replaced monophasic defibrillation as a technique to decrease defibrillation strength requirements. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,548,203 to Tacker, Jr. et al. and 4,821,723 and 4,850,357 to Bach, Jr. By decreasing defibrillation strength requirements, the energy storage devices in the implanted unit can be smaller.
With the desire to minimize energy requirements in implanted devices, there is room for improving biphasic defibrillation.